Gifts 8/?
Keeping Spike pinned beneath her, Buffy ground the stick into his chest and waited for him to dissolve into dust.
He didn't.
She frowned and looked at his torso. The stake was firmly embedded in seemingly the perfect position. Still, maybe she'd missed by a fraction of an inch. Buffy yanked the stake out, determined to try again.
Through the tear in Spike's shirt, she watched the wound over his heart seal up.
That wasn't supposed to happen so quickly, even taking into account the accelerated healing powers of vampires. Buffy eyed Spike suspiciously. "What have you been feeding on? Even if I missed your heart, you should still have a visible wound!"
He didn't reply, and Buffy poised the stake over his body once more. This time, she was absolutely sure she'd strike his heart. She rammed the stick home, and once more Spike failed to turn into dust. Also once more, the hole in his chest sealed as soon as Buffy pulled the stake out.
"What's wrong with you? Is your heart in the wrong place?" She *could* just keep jabbing him over and over in different locations until she found the right one, but Buffy had a better idea. She grabbed Spike by the collar and dragged him toward a huge patch of sunlight that streamed through a gap in the trees.
For the first since the attempted stakings, he spoke up. "You don't want to do this, Slayer."
"Oh, yes, I do," she grimly replied. She tugged Spike the last few feet, deposited him right under the harshest of the sun's rays, and stood back to watch the fun.
Spike shaded his eyes with a hand. "It's brighter than I thought it would be."
His head and hands were completely exposed, but he wasn't even smoking. "What aren't you on fire?" Buffy demanded.
Spike lowered his hand and gracefully rose. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Yes! Yes, I would!"
"Too bad."
Buffy felt like smashing the insolent vampire's face in, but she was pretty sure it wouldn't help her get any answers. "All right, then, what did you want to talk to me about?"
Spike shrugged. "Maybe nothing, now. I wasn't threatening you in any way, and you attacked me and beat me up with no provocation whatsoever. All that doesn't exactly make me feel inclined to have a pleasant discussion with you."
"You said you killed my roommate! How was I supposed to react?"
"You could have listened to me for 10 seconds instead of going off like you did. I was trying to tell you she was a demon. You know, those nasty, evil things you like to kill?"
Buffy stared at Spike. Could she believe even a word he was saying? A better question: Why was she even considering believing him? Spike was her enemy, for God's sake. She should know better than to cut him any slack. "How about trying the truth, instead?"
Spike shook his head. "Oh, Slayer, how misinformed you are. You just think about what I said." He turned and strolled off down the sunlit path, calling over his shoulder, "And don't worry, you're going to be seeing a lot of me around from now on."
Buffy was still staring dumbly at the spot where Spike had disappeared into the woods when Oz, Willow, and Xander ran up.
Willow touched her shoulder. "Buffy? Was that Spike?"
"Yes." She nodded.
"Well, why didn't you stake him?" Xander asked.
"Long, evil story. *Very* evil story. Actually, I did stake him. It didn't work."
"How could it not work? Stake plus vampire is a deadly combination."
Buffy pulled herself out of her daze and shrugged. "Apparently not anymore. I staked him twice, and it didn't even faze him. Neither did a sunbath."
Oz frowned. "So, you tried the usual on Spike and he laughed it off?"
"Exactly." Buffy looked at Willow. "Any ideas how?"
"Sun repellent. Magic. Pure, dumb luck," Willow suggested.
"Whatever the reason, an invulnerable Spike is not something we want to deal with," Xander noted.
"Hey, what was he doing out here anyway?" Willow asked Buffy. "Was he trying to kill you?"
"Strangely, no. He said he wanted to talk to me. He admitted he killed Kathy, and that's when I attacked him. He barely made a move to fight back. Then I staked him and tried the sunlight thing, and he just got up with no harm done. *Then* he fed me this ridiculous story about Kathy being a demon. Can you believe he thought I was stupid enough to fall for that?"
The others looked away.
"Guys?" Buffy looked at each of them in turn. "What is it?"
Oz finally answered. "Um, Buffy, Kathy *was* a demon."
*****
Spike sauntered along, enjoying his view of the daytime world of Main Street. He felt good. Really, *really* good. He'd confronted the Slayer, confused the hell out of her, and walked away, none the worse for wear. Sure, it would have been even better if she'd been more receptive to his advances, but one couldn't expect too much too soon. As Shakespeare had written, the course of true love never did run smooth. Spike was confident he'd eventually wear Buffy down.
He held out his hand and admired his new accessory: the Gem of Amara. Or, a vampire's best friend. That little ring provided invincibility to any vamp lucky enough to have it in his or her possession. Spike had no intention of letting it out of his anytime soon. His minions had found it just that afternoon, buried in a treasure trove beneath the streets of Sunnydale. Spike had hardly been able to believe his luck. The Gem was legendary in vampiric circles. It hadn't been seen in so many centuries, some didn't even think it had ever existed. But, having heard the stories and put together the clues, Spike had narrowed down its location to one of several areas on the Hellmouth. *He* had been the only vampire with intelligence and vision enough to find the Gem, and it was everything he'd heard it was.
He was going to have to secure it better, of course. The Slayer was bound to figure out why he hadn't been dusted or cooked, and then all she'd have to do was yank the ring off his hand and he'd be back to being normal old Spike, killable by any of a number of simple methods. He'd definitely work on that issue very soon. Right now, though, he had another decision to make. Spike stopped in front of a sunglasses stall and considered: Ray Bans or Gucci?
Note on the spelling of Gem of Amara: In the "Buffy" episode "The Harsh Light of Day," closed captioning and transcripts say "Amara." In the "Angel" episode "In the Dark," the "Amarra" spelling is used. Since the shows couldn't get it straight, I just picked one and went with the spelling used on "Buffy."